Saturday, February 21, 2015

Conference Countdown: Entertainment

This year, I am excited to have some great performers as part of the event. They are going to help make our 10th anniversary celebration a memorable one.

Singer/songwriter/poet/writer/yoga instructor/all around great guy Jeff Finlin will perform at lunch on Friday and will help kick off the event. Jeff is one of my all-time favorite singers (and good friend). I think I have every one of his albums.

I met Jeff years ago when his son and my daughter started middle school at Polaris ELS. The school is an expeditionary learning school which focuses on project-based learning with lots of real-world experiences. Because of this they went on great “adventure trips.” Jeff and I were parent chaperones together on a few trips: the camping trip from hell up at Rocky Mountain National park (constant rain, tents and 25+ middle-schoolers is not the best mix), Dinosaur National Park and an amazing week long fly-fishing trip.
Early on we became friends. I found out Jeff was a singer and went to one of his concerts. Instantly I became a fan, put all his music on my iPod and now if I know he is doing a show, I will do whatever I can to be there. The combination of his deep, gravelly voice and poetic lyrics resonate with me on some deep level.

I knew this would be the perfect year to have him at the writer’s conference to do a short set of his music and facilitate a session on creativity. Plus, since he is a certified yoga instructor, he is going to lead the Saturday morning yoga session. It is a win-win all around.

Then on Saturday Sara Alan and Susan Knudten will perform the Sara and Susan Show. Sara was a presenter a few years back with a session on Improve Your Writing Through Improv. I am thrilled to have her back and look forward to meeting Susan.

A mix of sketch and improv, this show is a light-hearted romp through the world of writing and publishing. Sara Alan and Susan Knudten, both writers and performers with thousands of shows under their combined belts, will have everyone laughing with their original take on our collective obsession with writing.

Here is a little more about them:

SARA JADE ALAN received her improv and sketch-writing training at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City and at Impulse Theater in Denver, where she was a cast member for five years. Sara has taught and performed improv for over a decade and has had original scripts produced for the stage in Denver, Chicago, and New York City. She’s also a past winner of the Pikes Peak Writers Conference contest in the category of Young Adult.

SUSAN KNUDTEN has an extensive background in live performance. As the co-founder of Denver’s Impulse Theater, she appeared in more than 2,000 improv shows and taught numerous workshops for adults of all ages and backgrounds over the course of 20 years. She is also an active commercial actor and voiceover artist. Susan is currently revising her first novel through The Book Project, a competitive two-year program of Lighthouse Writers Workshop for which she was selected in 2014.